784 
THROUGH ASIA 
situation agrees in all particulars with the actual state 
of things, as I myself was able to verify. On the other 
hand, Marco Polo’s Pein, which ought to be in the same 
region, cannot be identified. 
Further on the Chinese traveller writes, “If you go 
east therefrom {i.e. from Niya), you enter the vast expanse 
of flying sand, so called because the sand is constantly 
moving, and because, when it is driven by the wind, it 
forms waves and hills. In that sand the traveller’s track 
becomes blotted out, so that many go astray, and, lost 
amid those boundless expanses, where nothing meets 
the eye that can guide them, they perish of weariness ; 
and this we know from the heaps of bones which you 
see in several places. In that sand there is neither water 
nor green growing thing ; but a hot wind often rises, 
which takes away the breath of both man and beast, and 
not seldom is the cause of sickness. You hear almost 
always shrill whistlings or loud shouts ; and when you 
try to discover whence they come, you are terrified to find 
there is nothing that has occasioned them. It often 
happens that men then get lost, for that place is the 
abode of evil spirits. After a thousand li you come to 
the ancient kingdom of Tu-ho-lo. It is a long time since 
that country was changed into the desert. All its towns 
lie in ruins and are overgrown with wild plants.” 
Marco Polo’s description of the desert of Lop is so 
like that of the Chinese traveller, that one is almost 
tempted to think that he borrowed from it certain of his 
impressions. It is however extremely interesting to learn 
that, so far back as 1250 years ago, the country to the 
east of Niya was quite as much of a desert as it is now. 
As for the ancient kingdom of Tu-ho-lo, and its buried 
cities, I will merely state that, according to the Chinese 
rules of transliteration, Tu-ho-lo is the same word as 
Tukhari (or Tokhari), and that Tukhari was used to 
indicate the people who in the year 157 b.c. dwelt at 
Bulunghir - gol, but subsequently migrated to West 
Turkestan, where the existing name of Tokharistan 
perpetuates their memory. Further, the word Tu- 
